Is The E-Liquid Market Still Growing

The answer is yes! The e-liquid market is steadily growing year on year due to many smokers seeing the benefits of vaping compared to the more harmful smoking of tobacco. If e-liquid is a market that you are thinking of branching into, we’re here to give you the lowdown on the latest sales statistics, growth and new ideas that you can use to make your decisions and choose your markets correctly. Did you know that the global vaping products market is now estimated to be worth $22.6 billion (£17.1 billion)? That’s up from $4.2 billion just five years ago!

Popularity Of Vaping In The UK

E-liquid and e-cigarette sales in the UK have continued to climb year on year, with the UK now being the second biggest market for vaping products in the world. In 2017, the value of total sales in this sector reached £1 billion and it is forecast to continue to grow at an incredible rate to exceed sales worth £2 billion by 2020. In April 2018, Supreme (which is one of the UK’s biggest e-liquid and e-cigarette retailers) was the first vaping company to go public by listing shares on the London Stock Market. The company posted revenues of £70.7 million the previous year, so it’s no surprise that it went down this route. If you’re in the vaping business for the long haul, this is the level of success you could aim for!

Here in Britain, we have accepted this new form of ‘smoking’ much faster than our friends across the Channel, as e-cigarettes are twice as popular here than in any other European country. It is estimated that as of September 2018, there are 2.8 million people in the UK who vape regularly, with half of those being ex-smokers. Research undertaken by Cancer Research UK in 2013 stated that 19% of the UK adult population are currently smoking tobacco products, which equates to around 9.4 million people. That is a huge potential market for e-liquid retailers to tap into.

Vaping In Other Countries

One limitation of selling e-liquid is that vaping is not currently a worldwide phenomenon, so you cannot expand your market share to as many foreign markets as you would like. Many countries have outright banned the use and sale of e-cigarettes, many due to lack of knowledge about the long term health effects of the equipment, as well as a fear of decreasing demand for homegrown tobacco that brings in a lot of taxes for the country.

Countries that have banned e-cigarettes: Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kuwait, Panama, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

As well as these countries, there are also places where e-cigarettes are simply not regulated at all yet so the laws are a bit more hazy, such as in Australia, Canada and the Philippines. Despite these current restrictions and uncertainties, e-liquid and e-cigarettes are still a great area of business to branch into if you want to sell your products internationally (after all, alcohol is also prohibited in many countries as well and seems to be doing pretty well as an industry!).

Out of the 6 million vapers in Europe, nearly half of them live in the UK, as we do seem to be leading the way in regulations and technology in this field. The number of vapers in continental Europe is sure to rise in the coming years, as more economical and scientific information is published, meaning that there is another huge potential markets for UK based retailers to tap into.